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Tai Snaith’s work ‘Affirmative Animals’ is a finalist in this year’s Shelley Simpson Ceramics Prize. The Shelley Simpson Ceramics Prize (SSCP) was established in 2020 by Mud Australia Founder and Creative Director, Shelley Simpson, to support and champion the next generation of Australian ceramicists. Presented in partnership with Craft Victoria, the annual prize is open to ceramic artists working across functional ware, fine art, handcrafted objects and broader commercial ceramic practices. Alongside a $10,000 cash prize, shortlisted finalists will be exhibited at Craft Victoria as part of a dedicated exhibition celebrating contemporary Australian ceramics. The finalists’ work will be exhibited…
Judith van Heeren is a finalist in the 2026 Maldon Landscape Prize with her work ‘Pink moon’. The 2026 Maldon Landscape Prize, themed “Essence of Place,” is a national art award in Australia presented by the Maldon Artist Network and Cascade Art Gallery, encouraging diverse, inventive interpretations of the landscape. The finalist exhibition runs from September 26 to October 24, 2026, at the Cascade Art Gallery. “Essence of Place” invites artists to capture their personal, figurative, spiritual, impressionistic, or abstract responses to the environment and land. The Prize is generously supported by the Hillary Merkus Recordati Foundation.
Judith van Heeren is a finalist in the 2026 R & M McGivern Prize with her painting ‘Old Moon’. The R & M McGivern Prize was established by the will of the late Muriel Evelyn McGivern, a local resident and artist of Maroondah, as a legacy of Muriel’s support of the arts in Maroondah. The Prize is awarded every three years by the Trustee for outstanding, original artwork in the medium of painting in oil and watercolour (including gouache). The R & M McGivern Prize is an acquisitive award and the winning artworks will become the property of the Maroondah…
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Art: Alun Leach-Jones Artist: Alun Leach-Jones. Lived: North Sydney, NSW. Age: Died December 2017, aged 80.Represented by: Nicholas Thompson Gallery, Melbourne (no Sydney representation). His thing: Abstract paintings, hard-edged and colourful. The Country Beyond the Stars (2017), 97 x 72cm, by Alun Leach-Jones. Photo: Alun Leach-Jones Our take: In 2003, Alun Leach-Jones painted a large canvas called The Country Beyond the Stars, drawing his title from a poem by Henry Vaughan (1621-95). In 2017 he returned to this work as the basis for a new series. These eight paintings ended up being the last of his career. The works were intended for a show to coincide with The Field Revisited at…
Celeste Chandler’s solo exhibition ‘be my eyes’ pushes the limits of portraiture and traditional oil painting. Her introspective portraits conflate the boundaries between reality and illusion, the historical and the contemporary. Chandler directly responds to two anonymous historical portraits in the Bayside art collection, creating an intriguing and compelling installation of paintings that highlight the potential of self-representation and the fluidity of identity. ”be my eyes’ is a fascinating rumination on the legacy of figurative painting and the endurance of female creative expression through a contemporary lens.’ – Sophia Cai The Gallery at Bayside Arts & Cultural CentreUntil 6…
Heidi Yardley’s painting ‘Without your love’, is a finalist in The Glover Prize in Evandale, Tasmania. Celebrating the legacy of John Glover, The Glover Prize has become one of Australia’s most significant awards for landscape painting, open to artists from anywhere in the world.
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Art: Guy Warren John McDonald TRAVELLING NORTH (1989) BY GUY WARREN, CHARCOAL & CRAYON 56.5 X 77CM. Photo: Guy Warren AGE 96 LIVES GREENWICH, NSW REPRESENTED BY KING STREET GALLERY ON WILLIAM, SYDNEY; NICHOLAS THOMPSON GALLERY, MELBOURNE His thing Works on paper, landscapes, abstracts, memories. Our take Guy Warren is an institution in Australian art. Loved and respected by his peers, he is a much underrated artist who has never been inclined to push himself forward. Warren served in the AIF during World War II and went on to study at the National Art School. During his long career, his work has been acquired by…
Vale Alun Leach-Jones, distinguished painter and VCA alumnus VCA Director Professor Jon Cattapan remembers one of Australia’s great abstract artists. By Professor Jon Cattapan, Director, Victorian College of the Arts On 24 December 2017, distinguished alumnus artist Alun Leach-Jones passed away. Alun was born in Maghull, Lancashire in 1937, and moved to Wales at a very young age. He trained initially in manuscript illumination in Liverpool and arrived in Australia in 1960. He studied printmaking at the then South Australian School of Art under Udo Sellbach before relocating to London from 1964–65. He returned to Australia and settled in Melbourne…
Childhood is often characterised as a time of play and exploration. But for many artists these early experiences are a kind of apprenticeship for their careers in art. Briony Downes asked artists Kate Rohde, Tanya Schultz, Patrick Hall, and Celeste Chandlerabout making stuff as children. At some point in our lives, we’ve all been asked what we want to be when we grow up. It is often said that children are born creative, with a joyous and uninhibited ability to spontaneously colour everything in, build fantastical objects and draw up countless plans for big things. Yet at what point does an artist realise that…
I was fortunate enough to meet Alun Leach-Jones for the first time in July 2017 when I interviewed him in his Sydney studio for Art Guide Australia. The English born painter was softly spoken, but gregarious, and our conversation ranged from the discipline of his daily painting routine and his passion for abstraction and colour to his plans for the future which included a solo show of new work at Sydney Contemporary in September 2017. Leach-Jones immigrated to Australia in 1960 and he came to national prominence when his work was included in the now iconic 1968 exhibition The Field at the National Gallery of Victoria. I…